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ABSTRACT
The human population is increasing everyday leading to a rise in energy consumption, hence other forms of energy sources are researched. The use of fossil fuels is not environmentally friendly, a more viable and environmentally friendly source is being researched and developed. This study aims to determine the reaction kinetics of the free fatty acid reduction of jatropha curcas oil and the comparative study of the properties of the biodiesel produced from the esterified oil using metakaolin and calcium oxide as catalysts. Metakaolin is a type of clay produced from the calcination of kaolin clay at 9000C for four hours. Jatropha curcas oil was purchased from Luco Science Laboratory Limited. The physiochemical properties of the oil were evaluated. The oil contained a high percentage of free fatty acid; hence it was esterified at different temperatures using the same methanol-oilratio and catalyst concentration. The results of this study show that the reaction kinetics followed a first-order reaction kinetic model. The esterified oil was further trans esterified using two heterogeneous catalysts and the properties of the produced biodiesel were evaluated. From the results of this study, calcium oxide proves to be a more suitable catalyst in the base-catalyzed transesterification of esterified jatropha oil to produce biodiesel.
